30 percent of Chinese adults overweighted

15:40, March 22, 2012

Edited and translated by People's Daily Online

Nearly 31 percent of Chinese people over 18 years old were found overweight in a national survey in 2010, and 12 percent were considered obese, said Wu Liangyou, director of the Chronic Disease Division under the Ministry of Health’s Bureau of Disease Prevention and Control. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was significantly higher in urban areas than in rural areas.

Obesity, AIDS, drug addiction, and alcoholism are the four most challenging medical and social issues in the world. Overweight and obesity are the fifth leading risk for deaths, which cause at least 2.8 million deaths in the world every year.

Li Guangwei, a doctor at the Endocrinology Department of China-Japan Friendship Hospital, said that there are two ways to lose weight. The first way is eating less and moving more, and the second is changing diet and life styles.

Obese people are at higher risk of coronary heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and high blood pressure. In addition, obesity can cause premature death, reduce quality of life, and affect one’s marriage, education, and employment.

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PD User at 2012-03-2394.195.123.*

PD @ 22:28:09- what a sweeping statement! The main cause of Obesity is fast-foods such as McDonald"s and lack of exercise. The evidence is clear and there is plenty of it in US. If Chinese people are not lazy how did they build up their country"s economy? Nobody smoke opium these days. It"s not fashionable and probably unaffordable. Your knowledge is a century out of date!

PD User at 2012-03-22210.195.220.*

Just goes to show Chinese people"s lazy genes are coming back to plague them, once you give Chinese an easier live they turn to opium, that is what you get when you breed a culture of superficial people.

wende at 2012-03-2271.255.86.*

Obesity will eat up health care expense. China needs to emphasize exercise and discourage Chinese from eating fast foods. Smoking must also be discouraged.